The memories of Syracuse's blowout win over Siena and thrilling overtime victory over Albany were demolished by a complete thrashing from Maryland.

The Terrapins handed Syracuse a 16-8 loss, the worst for the Orange since 2007.

It sent the Orange, who began the year among the national title favorites, plummeting in the weekly college lacrosse polls released Monday. Even worse, Maryland exposed a number of issues that could hinder the Orange all season.

Below are five takeaways from SU's first loss of the year in their ACC debut.

Major regression: During the most important stretch of the game, Syracuse allowed eight consecutive goals while getting only one possession of its own. After showing positive signs in the first two games of the year, the Orange's three faceoff specialists were dominated, losing 19 of 27 and making it clear the spot could hold SU back against better teams again this season.

While it's too early for statistics to tell a complete story, the Orange is scheduled to face only two specialists that have won fewer than half their chances this season.

Virginia's Mick Parks, who Syracuse could face Saturday, is one of them. He beat Syracuse on 16 of 21 tries last year. He has struggled so far this season, winning just 37 of 79, and was replaced in Virginia's last game by Nate Menninger.

"I guess the next game will tell us," Syracuse head coach John Desko said. "It's been a concern for us in the past."

FACEOFF SPECIALISTS ON SYRACUSE'S SCHEDULE

Opponent

Specialist

Percentage

Virginia

Mick Parks

40.2 (37 of 79)

St. John's

Mario Carrera

53.3 (16 of 30)

Johns Hopkins

Drew Kennedy

67.8 (40 of 59)

Duke

Brenden Fowler

64.0 (57 of 89)

Notre Dame

Liam O'Connor

64.1 (25 of 39)

Binghamton

Dan Mazurek

65.7 (23 of 35)

Cornell

Doug Tesoriero

83.3 (20 of 24)

Hobart

Jake Shapiro

46.7 (7 of 15)

Colgate

Alex Kinneally

72.9(35 of 48)

More than faceoffs: The faceoff issue played a major role in the defeat and, because it is such a difficult midseason fix, constitutes the biggest long-term concern for the Orange. Syracuse, though, managed to overcome those problems last year with solid play everywhere else.

On Saturday, Syracuse wasn't very good anywhere. The Orange shot a low percentage (25 percent), surrendered 55 shots and were repeatedly beaten to ground balls.

Syracuse was caught once with too many men on one side of the field and once with a goalkeeper who wasn't paying attention to a quick re-start. There were repeated mental and physical breakdowns.

"We made a lot of mental errors," Desko said. "I thought we should have been the ones who played composed here in the Carrier Dome. A lot of mistakes defensively and rushing things offensively, which you can't do against Maryland."

There was also very little anger or outward emotion afterwards from Desko, senior Matt Harris or attacker Kevin Rice during their post-game press conference. After the program's worst loss since 2007, the response against Virginia will be interesting.

"There should never be an effort issue," Rice said. "Everyone gave it 100 percent. That shouldn't even be a question."

Bad losses mean a lot, except when they don't: The loss was Syracuse's worst since a 17-9 defeat to Johns Hopkins in 2007. That one, in the fifth game of the season, followed a 2-2 start but also served as a harbinger of things to come with the Orange eventually finishing 5-8.

The worst loss before that was a 17-5 defeat to Johns Hopkins in the fourth game of 2004. Syracuse beat Princeton the next week and went on to win the national championship against Navy. Virginia provides a similar measuring stick.

Galasso makes debut: Nicky Galasso, who missed last season with a stress fracture in his foot and the first two games this year with an upper-body injury, played sparingly as a member of the second midfield,

He didn't do much in his first appearance with the Orange, though Desko attributed that to a lack of possession time on offense. Galasso, a North Carolina transfer who was once the No. 1 recruit in the country, was held without a point and took three shots.

Syracuse lost JoJo Marasco and Luke Cometti to graduation, and Maryland's defense forced SU's attackers to let the midfield do the offensive work. If Galasso can return to form, he'll be a significant help.

"Wish he'd played more," Desko said. "I would have liked to see him on offense but we didn't have the ball to do it. I thought he was solid out there. I thought he looked confident. He's running well, shooting hard, doesn't seem like the injury is slowing him down at all."

Staats starts over Maltz: Randy Staats' signs of stardom in his first two games earned him a spot on the starting attack over Derek Maltz, who was mixed in on extra-man opportunities and as a fourth attacker.

Desko said that if the Orange had possessed the ball more he would have done some more mixing and matching with Maltz, but Staats should be seeing most of his time on attack and receiving starters' minutes moving forward. Maltz will mix in as the fourth attacker and play on the second midfield.

"Randy's a terrific player," Desko said. "He has good vision, he can dodge, he finishes well. I think the whole team saw he needs to be out there as much as he can. Derek's a great player, too, and we need to get him on the field, too. We got him on the field with the second group for some good off-ball movement. If we'd had the ball more you would have seen more of a mix on attack."

Both players finished with a goal and an assist while adjusting to their new responsibilities.

"Really it comes down to how much offense did we play?" Desko said. "We played defense almost the whole second quarter."